Hamilton “over the moon” with win at ‘weaker’ F1 circuit

Styrian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton says he is “over the moon” to have claimed a rare Formula 1 victory at the Red Bull Ring, which he has labelled “one of my weaker circuits”.

Hamilton converted an epic pole position from a wet qualifying session into a controlled win on Sunday as he bounced back from a difficult season-opening Austrian Grand Prix in style to trim Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas’ championship lead down to six points.

The six-times world champion finished fourth on a penalty-strewn first race in Austria last weekend, and had previously only taken one pole and one victory at the Spielberg track, both coming in 2016.

“Honestly this is a track which is one of my weaker circuits, so to get a performance like this, I’m over the moon,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.

“I’m so happy, but I do also know that there’s a long way to go.”

Hamilton was in dominant form on Saturday as he stormed to pole by over 1.2 seconds, before heading a Mercedes 1-2 by 13s to open his winning account in 2020 with his 85th grand prix victory in F1.

Asked how he managed to turn around his fortunes with such a short gap between consecutive races in Austria, Hamilton replied: “With great difficulty. When there’s a will there’s a way.

“Last weekend definitely was psychologically challenging to have the penalties and to be called into the stewards on the Sunday morning just before the race and then get another penalty, and another one in the race.

“It’s never easy, but there’s nothing you can do about the past. All you can do is focus and channel your energy on the future.

“I worked hard with Bono and the guys to understand where last weekend went wrong and corrected it this weekend.”